


Changes

by lil_1337



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-19
Updated: 2011-10-19
Packaged: 2017-11-07 01:12:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/425294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lil_1337/pseuds/lil_1337
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the <a href="http://gw500.livejournal.com/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://gw500.livejournal.com/"><b>gw500</b></a> prompt bond.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Changes

Duo set his mug on the table and waved the waitress over to order another. Even though he was feeling no pain he didn’t miss the thoughtful look on his friend’s face. “Penny for your thoughts, Tro.”

Gesturing to his empty glass Trowa waited until it was refilled and the hostess had wandered off to take care of another patron. Running his finger through the circle of moisture that indicated where his cup had been he frowned, gathering his thoughts. “I’ve been thinking about cutting my hair.”

“No, shit.” Duo sat back in his chair chewing over the unexpected revelation and studying the man sitting across from him. “Why?”

Trowa took a long drink of his beer then set it down carefully so that the bottom of the glass intersected the previous ring to form a Venn diagram of condensation. “It’s time to stop hiding.”

“Yeah?” Duo set his mug to the side not wanting to let the alcohol in his system turn was obviously something important to Trowa into a flippant joke. He enjoyed the buzz he got from drinking, but generally was more silly then contemplative when he had a few in him.

“Yes.” Trowa drank a little more, letting the silence settle between them. When Duo did not pick up the thread of the conversation or move onto something else he spoke again. “All my life I have kept some part of me hidden. My emotions, my memories and even my identity have all been locked inside of me at one time or another. My hair has always helped me keep people from seeing all of who I am.” He paused to spin the glass in front of him. “It’s kept me from seeing more than just the mission in front of me too. Like blinders to keep the soldier on task.”

Duo nodded looking thoughtful. “I can see that, but why change it now? It’s been two years since the war ended.”

“I don’t want to be that person anymore.” Trowa played with his glass before draining it. Setting it down carefully he added a third ring to create another element to his diagram. “When I try to look forward and see my future it gets in the way and obscures my view. I don’t need to keep hidden or blend in anymore and I don’t want to see just half of the world anymore.” He looked up to meet Duo’s gaze a single green eye intense and solemn as the words that just been shared. After a moment he shrugged, a slight smile tweaking the corners of his lips. “If I don’t like it I can always grow it back out, right? Hair is just hair, it doesn’t mean anything.”

“Yeah.” Duo reached back to drag his braid over his shoulder, playing with the end of it absently. “After the war I stopped wearing the priest’s collar because we had managed to do what Father Maxwell was trying to even though he wouldn’t have agreed with how we did it. The job was done and I didn’t need to have the reminder anymore, you know.” Trowa nodded and waited quietly for Duo to continue. “I kept the braid though, because I couldn’t bring myself to cut it. Sister Helen braided it for me the first time. She would talk to me when she brushed and plaited it. I could pretend she was my mom. She wasn’t though. It’s okay now; I have friends who have my back. I don’t need a pretend mom to feel accepted.”

Trowa smiled, soft and compassionate. “Family is what you make, Duo, the people who love and accept you for who you are is more important than a random biological connection.”

“I know.” Duo nodded, his trademark grin subdued, but no less genuine. “I’ve been thinking I need to stop living my life for the past and start figuring out what the hell I’m going to do with my future.”

“What do you think that is going to be?”

“No damn clue.” Duo shook himself as if rousing from a shallow and unsettling sleep. He stood and slapped several crinkled bills on the table gesturing for Trowa to do the same. “Tro, my man, I passed a barber shop on the way here. What do you say we start figuring this shit out?”


End file.
